May Bird and the Ever After (32 page)

“You should call me Bea. That's what all my friends call me.” May squeezed Beatrice's fingers with a flush of embarrassment, but didn't pull away.

It was strange. She'd been around the girls at school her entire life. But within these few minutes she began to feel like she had known this one for a million years.

“When do you think we should go?” Beatrice asked. She and Fabbio both looked at May expectantly, as if she might have the answer. But May did have the feeling in her gut that they should go as soon as possible. The longer they waited in Ether, the more dangerous it was.

“I think tonight?” she said with a slight nod of her chin. To her surprise Beatrice and Fabbio didn't question her.

“We take the sewers last time,” Fabbio said. “There is secret way, but we get lost, eh?” Fabbio rubbed his nose and thrust his chin in the air. “Well, we try that twice, and both times entrance is . . . not where it is supposed to be.”

Beatrice gave May a glance, and May began to think she might have an inkling of why the captain and his men had gotten lost in the Apennines.

“I have a map,” Beatrice said. “I got it at the E. P. L., from an ancient map of the underground of the city.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from a pocket in her dress and laid it out on her lap.

“E. P. L.?”

“Ether Public Library,” Beatrice said nonchalantly. “I did a few days of research.” She pointed to the map, which showed the sewers that crisscrossed the city in motion, a few specks wandering around the page. “It's funny. Nobody goes into the library. The door is very hard to find and very small, and the shelves are a dusty mess. It's as if nobody bothers.” Beatrice wrinkled her nose as she said this. Clearly she thought it was very wrong not to bother.

“Beatrice and I use this way last time.” Fabbio tugged his mustache. “We come up right under the Eternal Edifice.” He thrust his finger at a tiny square on the map. “This is old door
that spirits use thousands of years ago. Only a few still know it. It is our only way in.”

“What are those?” May pointed to the moving specks.

“Ghouls.” Beatrice's lashes fluttered. “Unfortunately they love to bathe in the sewers.”

May gulped. “Do you have any maps for once we get
inside
the entrance?”

Beatrice shook her head, her eyebrows descending deeply. “Those pages had been ripped out. But believe me it's bad enough just getting there. The sewers are endless and go all over the city.” She added, “And if you get lost, you may end up outside the city gates—or worse, you may never find your way up again.”

“Fortunately I memorize map. I have much experience in these things,” Fabbio said. “It is no good to use light in sewers. Ghouls will see. It must be all up here.” He tapped his forehead.

The dangers gathered in May's head, like a murder of crows, flocking to a tree. The bravery she had felt a few minutes ago had slunk into a corner of her mind, replaced by fear and the crushing feeling that the three of them were just too small for such a great task. She wished they had John. She wished that she could be back in Briery Swamp, safe and protected in her tiny, comfy life. But wishing was not enough.

“We should leave at rush hour,” May said finally.

“Midnight,” Beatrice and Fabbio agreed.

Huddling close together in the gazebo, they waited for dusk to turn into night.

The basket containing Somber Kitty was carried to the city by one of the many streams that came together to form one giant river.

This river was made completely of ectoplasmic sewage, and flowed directly under the city wall into Sewerside.

When Somber Kitty saw that his vessel was fast approaching a dark drainage pipe beside the west gate of the city, he leaped out, gingerly bouncing along the wet sand until he was on solid, dry ground. Here he licked himself in disgust, shaking the wet drops from his tongue and peering up at the gigantic creature standing about a hundred yards away at the city wall.

Startled he hissed, then scurried into the shadow of the wall itself, far from where the giant creature stood.

His instinctual fear of the city had increased as he'd gotten closer to it, and now he stood very uneasy in the dark, wondering what to do. He sniffed at the air.

Since he was standing upwind of the river, he no longer breathed the scent of sewage. And since spirits have no smell, he failed to scent the three boatfuls of Egyptian souls who had tracked his progress downstream and were now sending for backup.

But since he was standing
downwind
of the city, he did get one particular scent that was familiar. Somber Kitty's tail jolted up. His ears did their satellite turn.

All at once he turned to the wall, placed his paws upon it, sank down, gazed at the giant figure by the gate, then at the pipe on his opposite side. He meowed; he growled; his slitty eyes rolled; his whiskers waggled with wild abandon. Deciding he had no other choice, he began to dig.

After thousands of miles of searching, Somber Kitty had finally scented May.

J
ust after midnight, when the spirits of the City of Ether had poured through the gates into the great cemetery to begin their night of haunting, three strangers crouched by a sewer grate, staring glumly into the oozing, smelling ectoplasm that flowed past them.

“The ghouls always swim in pairs,” Beatrice advised, “and you may have noticed they love to chatter, so we'll hear them if they're

“You stay behind me,” Fabbio added, thumping his chest once with his fist. “And do not fear.” May and Beatrice looked at each other.

“Bravely we go.” Fabbio slid into the water, and May and Beatrice slid in behind him, the coolness and sliminess of the ectoplasm making them suck in their breath.

They moved along the short stretch of canal with the current, which wasn't too strong here, and then got to the place where the road overhung the water, where they would go into darkness. Carefully they continued to move forward, till the last of the stars
snuffed out of sight. They twisted and turned in the dark, Fabbio leading the way.

“I'm actually getting used to the smell,” May whispered.

Beatrice squeezed her hand.

“Yes,” Fabbio answered. “Any smell, if you are around it long enough, will become invisible to your nose. For instance—”

“Shhhhhh,” Beatrice hissed, coming to a stop so hard that May slammed into her. They all stood with ears perked for a moment, and then May heard it.

Hbbbblellllleeehhhk Gbbbleh heh bleh hek

Down the tunnel ahead of them, the water splashed.

Beatrice's hand clutched May's. There was nowhere to hide.

Hbbbbllllbubbblllllllblek.

A sound like laughter came out of the darkness, getting closer and closer.

Glubbebbbbbwb.
The voices grew steadily louder. May held her breath.

And then the voices began to get lower. It was hard to tell at first, but then it was clear—they were moving away.

The three waited several minutes, listening carefully to hear if the ghouls would come back. They didn't.

“We go,” Fabbio whispered, moving again. After that, they all kept their mouths shut.

They wound through the sewers for what seemed like hours. May had stopped feeling the coldness of the water.

“I not sure, but I think we a little bit lost,” Fabbio finally whispered.

“Oh, my,” Beatrice said.

“I think this map, it is wrong. But it's okay, I fix.”

They took several more turns. Fabbio went slower and slower, which made May feel more and more doubtful. Soon they heard a sound up ahead—a series of loud splashes.

They pushed up against the walls of the sewer, the splashing getting louder and louder, moving toward them. This time it kept coming until it was suddenly upon them. Whatever it was it seemed to see them, because it came to a dead stop inches away. May could hear breathing and began to make out two shapes.

“Die!” In the darkness Captain Fabbio leaped forward, tackling one of the creatures and dragging it under the water.

The other creature let out a high-pitched scream. But it wasn't the scream of a ghoul. It was the scream of . . .

“Pumpkin?!” May gasped.

“May?”

There was a giant splash, and Fabbio and the other shape emerged from the water.

“Let go of me, ye idiot! Let go.”

This voice was familiar too. May, forgetting for a moment the danger, pulled her starlight out of her sack, and suddenly the tunnel was cast in the bright white glow. Standing before her, looking like drowned dogs, were Pumpkin, Fabbio, and—his neck hooked inside Fabbio's elbow—John the Jibber.

“John!” May leaped forward and threw her arms around his neck, knocking him backward.

John caught himself and straightened up. He laughed. “Well, eh, ahem. Hi there, lassie.”

“But . . . but . . .” May was speechless. She didn't know what to say first. “You went into the incarnerator! How did you get away? We saw you!”

John didn't answer for a second or two. He tugged at his collar awkwardly. “Eh, the Jibber's always got a few tricks up his sleeves. Didn't I tell ye I was the wiliest knave there was?”

“You did.” May hugged him again. “How? How is it possible? How'd you two find each other?”

“Why, at the Final Rest, of course,” John said, skipping over the first question. “I waited in room nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine, but ye never showed. And then I found Pumpkin wandering up and down the hall, cryin' 'is eyes out, looking fer ye. We've looked fer ye everywhere.” John swiped a ragged sleeve along his brow. “I was sure in trouble if I'd lost ye.”

“In trouble?” May squinted, confused.

John tugged at his collar again. “Well, I woulda felt terrible for the rest of Eternity, of course. That's trouble, ain't it?” John's eyes darted away from hers. “Ahem.”

May turned to see Pumpkin, standing with his arms crossed over his chest and his droopy eyes slitted angrily.

“Pumpkin, I—”

“You left me.”

“I thought it'd be safer for you if . . .”

Pumpkin turned and showed her his back.

“I thought it would be safer for you.”

No response. May reached to touch his back, but he stepped farther away.

“And what do we have here?” John asked, eyeing Beatrice and Fabbio darkly.

“Oh.” May grinned. “They're coming to the Edifice with me. With us. Oh, but I knew we'd be lost without you!”

John waved his cracked, callused hands sharply. “Ah, now hold on just a moment. Nobody extra's coming to the Edifice. It's hard enough having blasted Pumpkin along.”

Behind him Pumpkin lifted his shoulders dramatically and huffed.

May glanced at Beatrice and Fabbio. Fabbio was staring at John indignantly. “But I told them they could come.”

“M'girl, I won't have it.”